Start of the Berbice Slave Uprising

Background. Berbice was a Dutch colony in what is now Guyana, originally a hereditary fief of the Van Peere family granted by the Dutch West India Company. In 1762 its population included 3,833 enslaved Africans, 244 enslaved Amerindians, and 346 European colonists. In late 1762 disease broke out in the fort, killing or incapacitating many soldiers, weakening the colony's defenses before the uprising.

Outbreak of the Rebellion. On 23 February 1763, enslaved people on plantation Magdalenenberg on the Canje River rebelled in protest against harsh and inhumane treatment. On 27 February 1763, a further revolt took place on plantation Hollandia on the Berbice River, next to Lilienburg, where Cuffy was enslaved and worked as a cooper. The rebellion subsequently spread along the Berbice River toward the capital, Fort Nassau.

Leadership and Early Negotiations. The rebellion was led by Cuffy, a Coromantin man born on the Dutch Gold Coast in West Africa (now southern Ghana) before being trafficked and enslaved, with Captain Accara as his deputy. Cuffy led roughly 5,000 enslaved rebels. On 2 April 1763, Cuffy wrote to Governor Wolfert Simon van Hoogenheim, stating he did not want war against the Dutch West India Company's rulers and proposing a partition of Berbice, with the WIC holding the coast and the freed enslaved people the interior.

Significance and Commemoration. The Berbice Rebellion is regarded as the first major slave revolt in South America and a major event in Guyana's anti-colonial struggles. When Guyana became an independent republic in 1970, the state declared the anniversary of the rebellion's start, 23 February, as Republic Day. Cuffy is commemorated in the 1763 Monument in Georgetown's Square of the Revolution.